Automating ClawVault

ClawVault is designed to run unattended. Observation sweeps, memory maintenance, and session bookkeeping can all be scheduled so your agent's memory stays current without manual intervention.

Cron-Based Observation Sweeps

The observe command compresses raw session transcripts into categorized observations. Running it on a schedule ensures no session data is left unprocessed.

# Run every 30 minutes
*/30 * * * * cd /path/to/vault && clawvault observe --compress 2>&1 >> /var/log/clawvault-observe.log

For vaults with high session volume, split observation into two passes:

# Fast rule-based pass every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * clawvault observe

# LLM-compressed pass every 2 hours
0 */2 * * * clawvault observe --compress

OpenClaw Heartbeat Integration

If your agent runs on OpenClaw, heartbeats provide a natural trigger for memory maintenance. Add observation checks to your HEARTBEAT.md:

## Memory Maintenance
- Run `clawvault observe --compress` if last run was >1 hour ago
- Run `clawvault link --all` if new files were added since last link pass
- Run `clawvault reindex` if search results seem stale

Track when each task last ran in a state file to avoid redundant work:

clawvault checkpoint --working-on "heartbeat maintenance"
clawvault observe --compress
clawvault link --all

Auto-Observe on Session Events

The OpenClaw hook can trigger observation automatically at session boundaries. When the hook is installed, ClawVault runs observation on:

• Session start (wake) -- processes any transcripts from the previous session
• Session end (sleep) -- compresses the current session before handoff
• Context death recovery (recover) -- catches up on missed observations

See Hook Setup for installation instructions.

Manual Event Triggers

You can also wire observation into shell events:

# In .bashrc or .zshrc
clawvault_post_session() {
  clawvault observe --compress --quiet
  clawvault link --all --quiet
}

# Call after any long-running agent session
trap clawvault_post_session EXIT

Scheduling Memory Maintenance

Beyond observation, several maintenance tasks benefit from regular scheduling:

Reindexing

The search index can drift if files are edited outside ClawVault. Schedule periodic reindexing:

# Daily at 3 AM
0 3 * * * clawvault reindex

Link Resolution

Auto-link entity mentions across all vault files:

# Weekly on Sunday
0 4 * * 0 clawvault link --all

Health Checks

Run the doctor command to catch configuration drift:

# Weekly
0 5 * * 1 clawvault doctor

Vault Statistics

Log vault growth over time for monitoring:

# Daily
0 6 * * * clawvault stats >> /var/log/clawvault-stats.log

Putting It Together

A complete automation setup for an OpenClaw agent:

clawvault setup

crontab -e

*/30 * * * * cd ~/vault && clawvault observe --compress --quiet
0 3 * * * cd ~/vault && clawvault reindex --quiet
0 4 * * 0 cd ~/vault && clawvault link --all --quiet
0 5 * * 1 cd ~/vault && clawvault doctor --quiet